(Source: Anshel Sag, Moor Insights & Strategy)
The ODG R-9 is the company’s flagship device which features the same optics as the Horizon prototype that I have been impressed with ever since I saw it with OTOY’s light field content in June when it was unveiled. I am impressed with the R-9, because it feels like such a leap in improvement of technology over the previous generation and many other current technologies. Most of the AR headsets I have seen, including the Hololens and Meta2 generally have narrow field of view (FOV) compared to VR headsets and lack visual fidelity. Even with all that praise, the ODG R-9 does still have a relatively narrow FOV at 50 degrees, while the R-8 has an even narrower 40 degree FOV compared to VR headsets but is still much better than Microsoft’s Hololens.
The Meta2 AR glasses on the other hand have a much wider 90-degree FOV but do not have as high resolution as the ODG R-9 which produces 1080p per eye. This means that the ODG R-9 has a higher pixel density and visual fidelity; having tried both, I can confirm the ODG R-9 is clearer and sharper. The Meta2 glasses are not entirely comparable to Hololens or ODG’s R-9 glasses, because they still require a computer connection and do not have their own integrated compute for mobile use. The ODG R-9 also has a competitor in Magic Leap’s AR glasses. Those appear to have a separate compute and battery pack attached via cable and aren’t as comparable as Microsoft’s Hololens but are still more comparable than Meta2. While I have not tried the R-9 yet, I have tried the Snapdragon 805-based prototype which didn’t have a lot of the features that this final Snapdragon 835 version did including 6-DoF tracking using the Snapdragon 835’s inside-out tracking.
In addition to the ODG R-9 is the ODG R-8. ODG has been a leader in heads up displays and holographic displays for the US military and other enterprise applications. The ODG R-8 is the company’s first consumer product and will likely sell for less than the high-end R-9, which is likely going to be targeted towards enterprise and industrial applications. The ODG R-8 won’t necessarily be too much of a downgrade from the R-9 in that it will still sport a zippy Snapdragon 835, but it will have a narrower 40-degree FOV compared to the R-9’s 50-degree FOV. However, this is still wider than the Microsoft Hololens’ 30 degree FoV which is still fairly limiting.
ODG’s headset is interesting, because it was the first I tried that blurred the lines between AR and VR and convinced me that eventually most headsets will be some sort of mixed or merged reality. Other headsets mostly functioned as either AR or VR headsets, but ODG’s R-9 has blurred the lines in a meaningful enough way to see how users might transition from one to the other or exist in some sort of Mixed Reality. I would love to see the ODG R-9 and R-8 support both Google Daydream and Google Tango, but realistically the hardware right now is limited, and it may be some time until we see Tango in something like an ODG R-8 or R-9. Companies like Microsoft need competition from the likes of ODG, and it is good to see some of the AR headset prototypes finally reach commercialization. While we don’t yet know what companies like Apple are planning, it seems like 2017 is going to be the year of VR and AR…or something in-between.
Anshel Sag is Moor Insights & Strategy’s in-house millennial with over 18 years of experience in the IT industry. Anshel has had extensive experience working with consumers and enterprises while interfacing with both B2B and B2C relationships, gaining empathy and understanding of what users really want. Some of his earliest experience goes back as far as his childhood when he started PC gaming at the ripe of old age of 5, building his first PC at 11, and learning his first programming languages at 13.
Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.
